By Monique Wooley
In my daily work routine, my attention began to focus on a dirty coffee cup that was tucked behind the paper towel roll, left on a countertop. This cup has been sitting in the same spot for weeks maybe even months. I saw it but didn’t pay much attention to it. But this day it caught my attention.
The designed words written on the cup were words like “God, faithful, truth, grace, trust, prayer, loyalty, and honor.”
I began to admire this cup and wondered who would leave such beautiful cup so dirty, filled with stale water over old coffee stains just sitting out of plain sight on the counter.
My mind began to wander. Then it dawned on me that this is exactly how we treat God. When he’s new in our lives we are determined to read the word, worship our Lord and Savior, spread the word, and constantly seek a better understanding. But eventually life happens. We unconsciously become distracted. The world becomes more important.
Not realizing that distractions has a spiritual cost. It can lead people to live reactively instead of intentionally. Instead of seeking God’s direction, we constantly chase news, monetization, opinions, and comforts, that can ultimately lead to anxieties.
Anxieties that are caused by caffeine overload, work stress, financial concerns, negative thinking patterns, lack of sleep, loss of a loved one, health issues and a multitude of debilitating fears.
Over time, this can create a pattern where prayer feels distant, Scripture feels routine, and worship becomes secondary at best.
God says put down that phone, silence those notifications, stop chasing that next viral story or focusing your attention on possessions. He said cease giving your heart to people who never intended on giving you their heart back.
Proverb 3:5-6 teaches us “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than trust in man”
The Most High wants you to refocus your attention back to that countertop, pick up that dirty coffee cup, clean off the distractive dirt and refocus on the words that he’s given.
“God, faithful, trust, prayer, loyalty, truth, grace, and honor.”
Take a daily walk outside, do deep breaths, drink some herbal teas, plant a garden, read a good book, volunteer to do something for someone else, create a comfortable, quiet space to seek The Most High in prayer daily and read his word until your reading dedication and his guidance helps you to begin to encompass his words.
And remember – “You can never truly be free, free of distractions, free of anxiety, free of depressions until you fully stand in your own Truth.”
“No one can ever steal your story, your story is unique to your journey and was designed to be a testimony for others.”
So never be afraid to tell your story in truth. You’ll never know who needs to hear your story or when it may change the trajectory of someone else’s life.
But do it in Prayer, do it in Faith, do it in Truth, do it with Trust, Honor and Grace. And no matter what…Do it with God.
